← All guides

Thailand · 10–14 days

Thailand: Bangkok, the north and the islands, in the right order

An honest guide to a first Thailand trip — when to go, how many days you really need, how to thread the city, the mountains and the beaches, which coast is actually dry when you visit, and the handful of things (a smoke season, a second airport, an annual beach closure) that quietly ruin trips planned from old blog posts.

Thailand is really three trips in one, and the art is in the order. There's Bangkok — a hot, electric, street-food city of glittering temples and river boats; the north around Chiang Mai — cooler, greener, slower, with hill temples, night markets and elephants; and the islands — the turquoise-and-limestone beaches most people picture first. The classic shape is to arrive into the city, head up to the mountains, then finish with your feet in the sea. It's a superb honeymoon (temples and city buzz, then a quiet island to land on) and just as good for a group, where everyone finds their own thing.

It is also one of the easiest countries in Asia to travel, which is exactly why it gets planned carelessly. The trips that go wrong usually do so for one of four reasons: picking an island on the wrong coast for the month, booking the north in March and April without knowing about the smoke, trying to fit in four or five bases in ten days, or missing a connection because the domestic flight left from Bangkok's other airport.

When to go

November to February is the cool, dry high season — the easiest, most comfortable time to see the whole country, and the busiest and priciest, with Christmas and New Year on the islands booked months out. March to May is genuinely hot, building to the pre-monsoon swelter (and to Songkran, the Thai New Year water festival around 13–15 April, which is huge fun if you're up for being soaked every time you step outside, and a nuisance if you're not). The green season, roughly June to October, brings warm downpours that usually pass in an hour or two, lush scenery, thinner crowds and much better prices.

The honest catch most guides gloss over: the two coasts run on different clocks.

• The Andaman side — Phuket, Krabi, Phi Phi, Koh Lanta, Koh Yao — is at its best November to April. From about May to October the south-west monsoon brings rougher seas: some boat routes and smaller resorts shut, the Similan Islands national park closes, and the west-facing beaches of Phuket fly red flags for dangerous rip currents. It is still visitable, but it's a different, moodier holiday.
• The Gulf islands — Koh Samui, Koh Phangan, Koh Tao — stay driest roughly February to September, and are wettest from about October to December, when the north-east monsoon arrives.

So the month you're travelling should decide which beach you end on, not the other way round. July and August — the UK school holidays — are the Gulf's moment.

The northern smoke season

This is the thing almost nobody mentions until you're there. From roughly February to April, and worst in March, agricultural burning and forest fires fill the valleys of northern Thailand with smoke. Chiang Mai regularly has some of the worst air quality of any city in the world at that time, the mountain views vanish into haze, and it is genuinely unpleasant for anyone with asthma. If your dates are fixed in March or early April, consider shortening the north or swapping it for Khao Sok or a second island, and check a live air-quality map in the week before you fly.

Festivals worth planning around

Yi Peng and Loy Krathong, on the full moon of the twelfth lunar month (usually November), are the reason for all those photographs of sky lanterns over Chiang Mai. They are beautiful. They are also now heavily managed: mass lantern releases happen at ticketed events with limited places and strict rules, and releasing lanterns elsewhere in the city is restricted. If it is the point of a honeymoon, book the event before the flights. Koh Phangan's Full Moon Party at Haad Rin happens monthly and takes over that end of the island; if you want quiet, stay on the north or west coast, or on another island that week.

How long, and how to shape it

Match the route to the days you have — and resist adding a fourth stop:

• 7 days — two legs, not three. Pair Bangkok (2–3 nights) with the islands (4 nights), or Bangkok with Chiang Mai. A week isn't enough to do the city, the north and the beach without living at the airport.
• 10–14 days — the classic loop. Bangkok for the temples, markets and food, then a short flight to Chiang Mai for the north — temples, a cooking class, an ethical elephant sanctuary — then fly south to one island group to finish. The best-balanced first trip.
• Add 3–5 days — go deeper, not wider. Stretch the north to Chiang Rai and Pai, add two nights at Khao Sok, add a second, quieter island on the same coast, or slow down in Bangkok. Better than cramming in a fifth base.

Getting around — and the two Bangkok airports

Distances are long, so fly the big hops. Bangkok–Chiang Mai is about an hour and ten minutes; Bangkok or Chiang Mai to Krabi, Phuket or Samui is an hour and a half or so. These flights are frequent and usually cheap. Three things to know:

• Bangkok has two airports. Most long-haul flights use Suvarnabhumi (BKK); many budget domestic flights — including much of AirAsia's network — use Don Mueang (DMK), on the other side of the city, often an hour or more apart in traffic. Check the airport code on every ticket, and never book a tight connection between the two.
• Koh Samui's airport is privately owned, so flights there are limited and noticeably more expensive. The cheaper alternative is flying to Surat Thani and taking a bus-and-ferry combination, which adds three or four hours. For a honeymoon, pay for the direct flight.
• The overnight sleeper train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai takes around twelve hours and is a lovely, slow way to cover the distance if you have the time — a proper bunk, the countryside at dawn. Long-distance trains now leave from Krung Thep Aphiwat Central Terminal in the north of the city, not the old Hua Lamphong station many older guides still name. Book ahead; sleeper berths sell out.

On the ground, the Grab and Bolt apps are the easy way to get metered, pre-priced rides in the cities. In Bangkok, the BTS Skytrain, the MRT and the Chao Phraya express boats beat sitting in traffic. On the Andaman coast, longtail boats and ferries link Krabi, Railay, Phi Phi, Koh Lanta and Koh Yao; in the Gulf, fast catamarans link Samui, Phangan and Tao.

Bangkok — two or three nights

• The Grand Palace and Wat Pho — go at opening time, before the heat and the tour groups. The palace has the strictest dress code in the country (shoulders and knees covered, no sheer fabrics), and Wat Pho's gold reclining Buddha is forty-six metres long. Take the cross-river ferry to Wat Arun afterwards, and come back to see it lit up from the east bank at dusk.
• A known scam, still working: a friendly stranger or tuk-tuk driver near the palace tells you it's "closed today" and offers a cheap tour instead, which ends in a gem or tailor shop. The palace is almost never closed. Walk past.
• Yaowarat, Chinatown, after dark, for street food — grilled seafood, noodles, mango sticky rice — and the overwhelming neon of it.
• Chatuchak Weekend Market, if you are there on a Saturday or Sunday: thousands of stalls, very hot, go early.
• Ayutthaya, the ruined former capital, an hour or so north, makes a good day trip on a longer stay — go early, and hire a guide or bicycles.
• A rooftop bar at sunset, then dinner somewhere much cheaper at street level. That's the Bangkok evening.

Chiang Mai and the north

Give Chiang Mai three nights if you can. It is a moated square old city of more than a hundred temples, easy to wander on foot, with mountains behind it.

• Doi Suthep, the gilded hilltop temple above the city — go early, and walk the 300-odd naga-lined steps rather than taking the funicular.
• A half-day Thai cooking class, most of which start with a market visit. Worth every baht, and the best souvenir of the trip.
• The Sunday Walking Street on Ratchadamnoen Road, and the Saturday one on Wua Lai — food, crafts and people-watching.
• An ethical elephant sanctuary. The word "sanctuary" is unregulated, so choose carefully: no riding, no shows, no painting, no hooks, small groups, and a clear rescue story. Welfare groups increasingly recommend observation-focused visits — watching elephants forage, walk and bathe themselves — over hands-on bathing sessions. Book ahead; the reputable ones are small.
• Further north: Chiang Rai, three hours away, for the extraordinary White Temple (Wat Rong Khun) and the Blue Temple; Pai, a laid-back valley town reached by a road famous for its several hundred bends — take a travel-sickness tablet.

Choosing your island

Choose the coast by month first, then the island by pace. Settle on one side — crossing from the Andaman to the Gulf mid-trip costs most of a day each way.

Andaman coast (best November–April)

• Krabi and Railay — the dramatic limestone cliffs. Railay is reachable only by boat, which keeps it car-free and calm in the evenings; Ao Nang on the mainland is the livelier, cheaper base. Good for climbing, kayaking and day trips.
• Koh Yao Noi — a quiet, rural Muslim island in the middle of Phang Nga Bay, with the karsts on the horizon. The honeymoon pick for people who want calm rather than nightlife. Dress modestly away from the beach.
• Phi Phi — spectacular, busy, and better as a day trip or a single night than a base. Maya Bay, the beach from The Beach, reopened after years of closure for reef recovery, but swimming there is banned, visitor numbers are managed, and it closes every year for around two months, typically August and September.
• Koh Lanta — long, easy-going beaches, good family and group villas, and a slower pace. A natural final stop.
• Phuket — the easiest to reach, with the widest choice of hotels. Choose your beach carefully: Patong is loud, while the north and the old town are much more pleasant.

Gulf of Thailand (best roughly February–September)

• Koh Samui — the comfortable, well-developed choice, with excellent resorts and pool villas, a direct airport and a good day trip to Ang Thong Marine Park. Resort demand has risen since the island's turn on television in 2025, so book early.
• Koh Phangan — two islands in one: the Full Moon Party end, and quiet, beautiful coves in the north and west.
• Koh Tao — small, cheerful and built around diving and snorkelling. One of the cheapest places in the world to learn to dive.

Khao Sok — the one people skip

Between the two coasts, Khao Sok National Park is ancient rainforest around Cheow Lan Lake, where you can sleep in a floating raft house among limestone towers, kayak at dawn and listen to gibbons. Two nights here, between Bangkok or Chiang Mai and the Andaman coast, is the best upgrade available to a standard route.

A sensible 12-night shape

For travel between November and April, finishing on the Andaman coast. (For June to September, swap the last two legs for Koh Samui and Koh Phangan, and fly into Samui.)

• Nights 1–3 · Bangkok. Land, sleep, and go gently on the first day. Grand Palace, Wat Pho and Wat Arun on the first full morning; Chinatown for dinner; Chatuchak or Ayutthaya on the second. A rooftop drink on the last night.
• Nights 4–6 · Chiang Mai. Fly up — or take the sleeper train on night three. Old-city temples and a cooking class; a full sanctuary day; Doi Suthep early on the third morning and a walking-street market in the evening.
• Nights 7–8 · Khao Sok. Fly to Surat Thani or Krabi and transfer by road. A night on a floating raft house on Cheow Lan Lake.
• Nights 9–12 · Koh Yao Noi, Railay or Koh Lanta. One island, four nights, and no more packing. A boat day around Phang Nga Bay; everything else is optional. Fly home from Krabi or Phuket via Bangkok — leaving a good buffer for the connection, and checking which Bangkok airport.

To cut it to nine nights: drop Khao Sok and give Chiang Mai two nights. For a beach-first honeymoon: two nights in Bangkok, then straight to one island for a week — which is a completely legitimate Thailand trip.

Honeymoons and group trips

For honeymoons, Thailand's great strength is that luxury is affordable by international standards: a pool villa with a sea view costs a fraction of its equivalent in the Maldives or the Caribbean. The shape that works best is a city-and-culture first half, then one island with nothing planned. Koh Yao Noi, Railay and the quieter corners of Samui are the natural choices.

For groups, private pool villas with staff and a cook — especially on Samui, Phuket and Koh Lanta — are often better value and more fun than a block of hotel rooms, and a private longtail boat for a day is inexpensive when split. The coordination is the hard part: a dozen people on domestic flights from two different Bangkok airports, ferry timetables that change with the season, a cooking class and sanctuary day that need a head-count in advance, and someone who wants a Full Moon Party while someone else wants silence.

Good to know

• Before you fly. Since May 2025 visitors must complete the free Thailand Digital Arrival Card (TDAC) online in the three days before arrival — use the official immigration site, as lookalike sites charge for it. The length of visa-free stay for UK and many other passport holders has been changed and reviewed more than once since 2024, so check the current allowance before booking a long trip.
• Let the coasts pick your beach. Andaman roughly November–April; Gulf roughly February–September. It's the single decision that most changes your trip.
• Dress for temples. Shoulders and knees covered at the big wats and palaces — carry a light scarf or sarong. Shoes off inside temples and homes, and never point your feet at a Buddha image.
• Respect the monarchy. Criticising the royal family is a serious criminal offence in Thailand, and stepping on banknotes (which carry the King's image) is deeply offensive.
• Say no to elephant riding and tiger selfies. Choose a sanctuary with a clear no-riding, no-hook, no-show policy.
• Think twice about renting a scooter. Motorbike accidents are the most common serious injury for visitors, and most travel insurance is void if you don't hold a full motorcycle licence and wear a helmet.
• Cannabis rules tightened in 2025. The dispensaries you'll still see do not mean anything goes — recreational use is not legal. Don't assume.
• Water and health. Don't drink the tap water; bottled and refill stations are everywhere. Use mosquito repellent — dengue is present, especially in the rainy season.
• Cash, SIMs and the 7-Eleven. Carry baht for markets, longtails and small restaurants (ATMs charge a flat foreign-card fee, so withdraw larger amounts less often). An eSIM or airport SIM is cheap. The ever-present 7-Elevens cover water, snacks and top-ups.
• Pace the heat. It's hot and humid year-round — do temples and markets early, rest in the afternoon, and drink far more water than you think you need.

Common questions

When is the best time to visit Thailand?

November to February is the cool, dry high season and the easiest time to travel the whole country. March to May is very hot, and the green season from roughly June to October brings warm afternoon downpours, lower prices and lush landscapes. The catch is the coasts run on different clocks: the Andaman side (Phuket, Krabi, Phi Phi, Koh Lanta) is at its best November to April, while the Gulf islands (Koh Samui, Koh Phangan, Koh Tao) stay driest roughly February to September and are wettest October to December. In the north, avoid relying on clear views from February to April, when agricultural burning brings heavy smoke haze to Chiang Mai, worst in March.

How many days do you need in Thailand?

Ten to fourteen days is the sweet spot for a first trip: two or three nights in Bangkok, three in Chiang Mai for the north, and four or five on the islands to finish. With only a week, drop one leg — pair Bangkok with the islands, or Bangkok with Chiang Mai — rather than rushing all three. With two weeks or more, go deeper rather than wider: add two nights in Khao Sok National Park between the north and the coast, or stretch the north to Chiang Rai and Pai.

Which Thai islands should you choose?

Pick the coast by season, then the island by pace. From November to April, choose the Andaman coast: Koh Yao Noi or Railay for calm and scenery, Phi Phi for the famous bays as a day trip, Koh Lanta for long easy beaches and group villas, Phuket for convenience. From roughly February to September, the Gulf islands are the drier bet: Koh Samui for comfort and pool villas, Koh Phangan for a mix of quiet coves and the Full Moon Party, Koh Tao for diving. Don't try to island-hop across both coasts in one trip; crossing costs most of a day each way.

Is it better to ride elephants or visit a sanctuary in Thailand?

Choose an ethical sanctuary and skip elephant riding. The word sanctuary is unregulated, so look for genuine no-riding, no-show, no-hook policies, small group sizes and a clear rescue story. Welfare organisations increasingly recommend observation-focused visits, where you watch elephants forage and bathe themselves, over hands-on bathing. The reputable places around Chiang Mai are small and fill up, so book ahead.

Which Bangkok airport do domestic flights use?

Both, which is the catch. Most long-haul flights use Suvarnabhumi (BKK), while many budget domestic flights, including much of AirAsia's network, use Don Mueang (DMK) on the other side of the city — often more than an hour apart in traffic. Check the airport code on every ticket, keep your domestic flights at the same airport as your international one where possible, and never book a tight self-connection between the two.

Is Thailand good for a honeymoon or a group trip?

Very good for both. For honeymoons, luxury is affordable by international standards — a private pool villa costs a fraction of its Maldives equivalent — and the natural shape is culture in Bangkok and Chiang Mai first, then one quiet island such as Koh Yao Noi, Railay or a calm corner of Koh Samui with nothing planned. For groups, a staffed private pool villa on Samui, Phuket or Koh Lanta is often better value than a block of hotel rooms, and private boat days are inexpensive when shared. The hard part is coordination: domestic flights from two Bangkok airports, seasonal ferry timetables, and head-counts for cooking classes and sanctuary visits.

More guides: Sri Lanka · Vietnam · Japan · Kenya safari · Costa Rica · Greek Islands